Amy Graves/WireImage.com; Astrid Stawiarz/Getty ImagesFirst comes the threat. Then comes the backtracking. In hyperspeed.
With Team Lohan already lining up the lawyers to shut down the planned fictionalized account of the Lindsay trainwreck, the presumptive star of said flick, model/actress/heiress Lydia Hearst Shaw, is now denying she was ever signed on to play the rehabbing starlet.
Take it away, Lydia...
Seems the 26-year-old daughter of once-kidnapped Patty Hearst felt the need to do some 'splaining after the New York Post reported that she would play the lead character in the comedic film, titled Dogs in Pocketbooks.
"Just so we are all clear...My hair is red because I am the new face of Schwarzkopf color. I am a model. I dyed my hair to front the campaign," Hearst tweeted yesterday, denying she dyed her locks to look like Lohan.
The movie's mastermind, Charles Casillo, had claimed that he chose Shaw after looking at a lot of actresses for the role. "She's one of the few supermodels who can actually act," he said.
Casillo had described the character as a "bratty movie goddess in and out of rehab," telling the Post he based her directly on Lohan.
That's when Lohan family patriarch Michael stepped into the fray.
"I smell more attorney fees brewing," Michael told E! News earlier this week. "To date, I don't know that Lindsay's rep or [her mom] Dina and I have been contacted about this 'venture.'
"Personally, I don't understand why Mr. Casillo and Lydia Hearst find it so fascinating they would want to make a movie about Lindsay and our family," he continued. "Especially when the Hearst's family is more interesting and probably has more drama than ours."
That prompted Casillo to do a 180 and play down the Lohan connection—in fact he's now telling E! News it's not about her at all.
"It was never the story of Lindsay Lohan," Casillo says. "It is a spoof of all the young actresses of today and their tabloid headline stories."I knew when she saw it it she would see it has nothing to do with Lindsay or her family. It was never my intention to do a movie about Lindsay. I did no research. I didn't talk to anyone who knew her. This is not a biopic of her."
Casillo says he offered to send the script to Dina Lohan, but never heard back. He also says that if he wants to make the film, no one can stop him.
"I said it was a story of someone like a Lindsay Lohan or a Paris Hilton or even a Marilyn Monroe or Jean Harlow of their day," Casillo said. "This is just a spoof of the headlines."
Casillo says he imagines that Shaw was "shocked" when he heard the film being talked about as a Lohan biopic. He declined to comment on whether Shaw was even still attached to the movie.
But Shaw took to the Twitterverse to make sure she wouldn't be lumped in on any legal action lised her upcoming, Dogs-free schedule.
"As for any theatrical roles I am currently filming Two Jacks directed by Bernard Rose. My Next Project is Catwalk by Tony Hickox...thank you all for your messages of encouragement during mytransition into acting. I truly love and appreciate it," she wrote. "At this time I am not officially signed onto any other projects."
And according to Casillo, production on Dogs in Pocketbooks is still going strong.
(Originally published Dec. 30, 2010, at 7:40 a.m. PT)